Where Do I Come From?

This pictures tells you a lot about where I come from:

That’s me with the Smokey Bear. The Forest Ranger is my Dad. The place is somewhere in New Mexico. I have no memories of it. We also lived at the Coyote Ranger Station in New Mexico and then in the Ranger Station at Payson, Arizona. We lived in government owned houses. I remember the houses in Coyote and Payson had the exact same floor plan. The houses were located right on the property of the office and warehouse. So we grew up very familiar with Forest Service trucks.

and Forest Fires

(top two photos from flckr.com)

My older brother and I, who was about 5 at the time, used to strut around the yard and warehouse kind of keeping an eye on things and asking the workers what they were doing. I guess that we figured that since Dad was the Ranger, well, that made us second and third in charge. A National Guard officer showed up one day to talk to Dad who wasn’t there. While waiting he was joshing brother Bob and I a little about what he was planning on doing. We puffed up and told him that he better check with Dad before he started.

We didn’t get our own house until Dad got promoted into a Forest Supervisor’s office in Price, Utah. We stayed there for five years and then we moved to Eagar, Arizona.

Dad did various things for the Forest Service but everybody fights fires as their backup job. Sometimes during really dry summers he would be gone for weeks at a time helping fight huge fires in Montana, Idaho, and who knows where. One day he would show up exhausted. We got real close to Mom. We played games and drank pop and worried about and missed Dad.

I was a Forest Service kid, as were my brother and sister. My Mom was a Forest Service wife. It was kind of like being in the army I think. It was very close knit. The employees and their families socialized quite a bit. Wherever we moved we already knew somebody. My Dad who has been retired over 25 years still attends a reunion campout in Quemado Lake, New Mexico with his former coworkers and their wives. Mom has been gone for some years now but when she was still around she looked forward eagerly to the reunions.

So, we were always on the outside of wherever we lived. I mean the residents were very welcoming and we participated in whatever the school and the community had to offer but it wasn’t like I ever expected to stay anywhere. People will tell you that “the kids will be fine” about a move and that is true but I can tell you that it is gut wrenching to say goodbye to your friends and move hundreds of miles away and often never. I think that an entire Boomer generation went through the same thing and that’s why many people refused to move so much when they had kids. Its too hard on the kids I think. I’ve been there.

During my sophomore year in high school we moved from Springerville to Albuquerque. Talk about night and day. From very conservative, close knit, ranching and logging community in the White Mountains of Arizona to an ultra liberal city at the tail end of the 1960’s. Talk about culture shock, especially for the kids. It took about a year for us to find a social group to fit into. It all worked out for the best though. I got along with my parents very well and stayed at home while I went to college except when I worked as a summer roustabout in the oilfields of West Texas.

So, that’s where I came from!

I am participating in a new meme sponsored by the “Real Housewives of Oklahoma” aka “RHOK.” They are the the some of the smartest and talented bloggers in Oklahoma. One in particular, Miss Priss, was recently voted, “Hottest Mommyblogger” in Oklahoma. So go check them out.

The theme of the meme this week is “Where Do I Come From”

My World – Birthday Geocaching and a Contest for GPS Adventure Tickets in Maryland

Last week was my birthday. Here is a clue to how old I am:

(If you can decipher the clue you might win something. Go to the end of this post to see if you are interested.)

So how did I celebrate? I went geocaching. My young bride Sweetie agreed to come along. Here we are at the start, you can tell she is eager to get started.

We had a few hiccups involving uploading and downloading the coordinates where we had to go home to get everything fixed. I mean you can’t really enjoy the woods without the right technology, right?

So we finally got started and found our first cache.

We went on a three mile hike in the woods.

The red buds were blooming everywhere.

Sometimes you have to get down and dirty and reach up inside hollow trees and hope for the best.

and sometimes you have to make your way through the poison ivy and thorns

and sometimes you have to deal with obstructions in your path

Some caches are very clever. Do you see it?

Now do you see it?

We, or at least I, had a great time. Sweetie is such a great wife.

For other sights and sounds of our planet from all over check out That’s My World.

Now the Contest!!

If you are interested in geocaching, GPS technology, and wonderful science museums and can make your way to Baltimore, Maryland I have four tickets to the Maryland Science Center. They are having an special exhibit titled: GPS Adventures. You have to hurry though. The tickets are good through August 12 but GPS Adventures last day is April 18.

I really, really, really want somebody to have these tickets. So if you would like to go to the Maryland Science Center and can decipher the clue as to how old I am then email me with your answer at yogiabb(at)yahoo(dot)com.

It’s going to be very simple. When I get home from work Tuesday evening. We’ll take the entries, write them on a piece of paper, put them in a hat and SuperPizzaBoy will pull the winner out of the hat and I’ll be contacting you for your mailing address. You are going to have to trust me.

The only thing I ask is that if you get the tickets, please go and then make a blog post about it, and send me the link! I think that it would be a great My World post. I would love to go to that museum and exhibit, but its not happening for the Yogis.

Brooke White – “Hold Up My Heart”

What I’m listening to these days:

What are you listening to?

Logan’s Lightning Thieves and Ready…Set…Run 2010

More Info

Do you like to Run? Do you like to Walk? Do you like to help a good cause? The Autism Center of Tulsa is having their fourth annual Ready…Set…Run! 5K and Fun Run on May 8 at Hunter Park in Tulsa. The race is both a fund raiser for the Autism Center and a time for the Autism Community to get together.

You can enter the 5K or the fun run by clicking on the banner on the sidebar. If you can’t make it out that day and would like to donate as little as a dollar you can also do it by clicking on the banner. Or if you don’t feel like donating any money but want to leave a comment that is very much appreciated also. Or if you want to help volunteer on race day that would be great, we need lots of help that day and we can find you a job to do just let us know here. Either way, please join SuperPizzaBoy’s team. This year it is “Logan’s Lightning Thieves.”

If you know anybody in the northeast Oklahoma area who has a child with autism especially those who are newly diagnosed and are looking for information please refer them to the Autism Center of Tulsa. The Autism Center doesn’t provide treatment instead they are a clearinghouse of information for parents, doctors, and other health providers. They also have parent support groups, sponsor family fun nights and other events that are either free or low cost to the families. They have also done things like provide training to the Tulsa Police Department on how to deal with people with autism.

Here is some scenes from last year’s race.

The lineup for the Fun Run

SuperPizzaBoy and Sweetie. His team last year was named “Logan’s SuperPizzaPeople.” In addition to being a potential broadway star and video game champion SPB has a form of autism called Asperger’s Syndrome.

Come on out and have some fun with us this year.

Skywatch – Where It Go? The Moon I Mean.

A couple weeks ago I was at home and SuperPizzaBoy and Sweetie had taken our two mutts for a walk. Sweetie called me on the phone and said, “You need to look at the moon, its beautiful!” I’m always up for that so I went out on the front yard to have a look and couldn’t see it. I looked all over for it. Where did it go?

So I went to the back porch and couldn’t see it there either. Well this is crazy. I went further out in the yard and there it was:

Just like Sweetie said!

Sorry about the blurry shot, the picket fence and all that. At least I found it. I get some credit for that.

Click on over to Skywatch Friday for great photographs of the sky we share from all over our planet.

The Real Housewives of Oklahoma

Check out the new Real Housewives of Oklahoma blog. Several of Oklahoma’s lovely, smart, and talented women have put this thing together and it is a lot of fun. It started up today! It is a meme type format so if you have a blog and want to contribute you can link to it.

I rate it four stars out of four.

Rain – A Tribute to the Beatles

Saturday afternoon Sweetie saw the matinee of the “Rain” the Beatles tribute playing downtown at the Performing Arts Center.

Those guys put on a heck of a show and I recommend seeing it if it gets to your town. I don’t know, I’m not sure, I hate to say it, but Sweetie and I agreed that these guys might be better musicians than the original Fab Four. Could it be? Their performance was dazzling.

It was a multimedia type presentation and I appreciated how it unfolded. They went roughly chronologically and spent some time on the famous performance at Shea Stadium with some video from the era. What got me was how well dressed the concert goers back then were. They were crying and screaming but they dressed better than most people did at my church’s Easter service on Sunday.

What got me about the Beatles way back when was how their music went from simple and sappy to incredibly complex. Just the way the 60’s were. The 60’s was very unsettling and the show reflected that.

I give the show four stars out of four. Go see it if you can.

Here is a segment that CBS did on Rain a couple years ago.

My World – Scenes from Austin

I went on a trip to Austin, Texas a couple weeks ago.

There was still snow in Tulsa and they were spraying the planes with what looked like pepto-bismol.

They had the plows going also

Dang it, this is Tulsa, OK at the end of March, not Fairbanks in January, anyway, we got the word,

Big Bird, you are cleared for takeoff.

I got to Austin and the Texas skies were blue and the temperature was warm

See the flag. Texans are very particular about the flag. Years ago I worked at a natural gas processing plant in Texas right on a major highway. If the college kids we hired put the flag up upside down, people would be pulling off the highway left and right to make sure we took it down and put it up right. You see its a five pointed star and your always have two of the points pointed down. God help you if you mess it up.

The SXSW Music Festival was winding down and the Sixth Street area was busy (sorry for the blurry photo)

I saw this leg lamp in a store window. Too bad it was closed, I know my wife would want one of these. Maybe if I ever go back. Can you carry a leg lamp on a plane, or do you have to check it?

I got homesick thinking of my wife, Sweetie, and how much she would love that lamp. Then I got even more homesick when I came across this shuffleboard parlor.

Playing shuffleboard, that is our deal. Too bad she wasn’t here with me.

A former residence of the writer O. Henry was right across the street from my hotel. He was an awesome short story writer and I love short stories.

I got a pretty good tour of east Austin while geocaching during a three hour lunch break one day. Its a real interesting area. Big time gentrification going on so you have a mix of the old and the new.

I absolutely loved the murals in the neighborhood.

Interesting Idea for a Neighborhood Watering Hole

I loved this house for some reason.

I loved this place also.

Right down the street this modern building.

Now, I love this but its like, is the offset of the second floor for a reason? Or just because it looks cool. I’m ok with it either way, I just want to know what the deal is.

For images of our world from all over the world check out That’s My World.

“Greetings”

What can I say about Easter? If there were no resurrection then we would have had a wise man who said and did a lot of great things and who was killed for it. Big deal. The resurrection is why we have hope.

I always wondered though about how it looked first hand to those who first saw Jesus after he was resurrected. I think he tried to break it to them gently by using angels but people were shocked nonetheless. I mean its one thing to be told about something and another to experience it.

Jesus himself didn’t say much when he first appears alive after his death. In the Matthew account he says simply “Greetings.” In John, he says “Mary.” He had to know that the shock of his appearance would be beyond overwhelming.

How great is it going to be when we get to say “Hello” to those loved ones who preceded us in death?

In the meantime we celebrate Easter as a time of new beginnings.